Tag: Birds

Plain-colored Tanager Tangara inornata Photo by Jonathan Slifkin One of the most common sights from the observation deck at the Canopy Tower is the Plain-colored Tanager. True to its name it is mostly gray, with black wings and a pale belly, but a careful look will also reveal a flash of bright blue at its wingbend. This charming species is common in forest canopy and forest edge habitats, but it occupies a rather restricted range, being found only in eastern Costa Rica, Panama, and northwestern Colombia. Plain-colored Tanagers are typically found in pairs or small groups, and can often be seen foraging within mixed flocks of tanagers, honeycreepers, warblers, and others. They move rapidly as they forage and give away their presence with their high-pitched vocalizations. They feed both on fruits, especially cecropia fruits, and on insects and spiders. Breeding takes place from February to August in Panama. The female builds the nest alone, using fibers and cobwebs, but the male helps her to gather material and to raise the chicks (two per clutch) until they are old enough to survive on their own. As mentioned, Plain-colored Tanagers are common at the Canopy Tower, which is surrounded by their preferred habitat of cecropia-dominated canopy. They are also common around the Canopy Camp and the Canopy Lodge, although we are still waiting for one to make an appearance on the Panama Fruit Feeder Cam!     References: Angehr, G. R., and R. Dean (2010). The Birds of Panama: A Field Guide. Zona Tropical, San José, Costa Rica. Zapata, Y. and K. J. Burns (2020). Plain-colored Tanager (Tangara inornata), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

Wing-banded Antbird Myrmornis torquata Photo by Tyler Ficker The rainforests of eastern Panama are perhaps the most important stronghold of the rare and distinctive Wing-banded Antbird. These antbirds can be recognized by their squat, nearly tailless appearance and their bright cinnamon-rufous wingbars (or "bands"). Males have an extensively black throat and breast, while females show a rufous-orange throat patch. This species appears to have a highly discontinuous range, with populations occurring variously across Amazonia and the Guianas, at the base of the Andes, and from northwest Colombia north into Honduras. It inhabits the interior of lowland forests. The discontinuities in its reported range may be due to poorly understood details of its habitat preferences, but also to its general rarity and the lack of comprehensive surveys. Unlike many more familiar members of its family, the Typical Antbirds (Thamnophilidae), the Wing-banded Antbird does not forage by attending army ant swarms. Instead, these antbirds forage by carefully and slowly probing through the leaf litter on the forest floor for insects and other arthropods, usually alone or in pairs and almost always away from ant swarms or other mixed species feeding flocks. This highly unobtrusive behavior—slow, quiet, and often solitary—contributes greatly to the difficulty of spotting and observing this bird in the field. The Wing-banded Antbird is not currently considered a threatened species, although much more remains to be learned about its distribution and ecology. In Panama Wing-banded Antbirds are found only in the eastern half of the country, including in protected areas such as Soberanía and Darién National Parks. It is very unusual to see this species on birding tours from the Canopy Tower, but it is often one of the top avian prizes for our guests at Canopy Camp Darien. Sabrewing guide Tyler Ficker narrates a recent encounter with a Wing-banded

Veraguan Mango Anthracothorax veraguensis Photo by Danilo Rodriguez Jr. Named for the Panamanian province of Veraguas, the Veraguan Mango was long considered to be strictly endemic to Panama but in recent years has been documented as well in far southern Costa Rica, where it appears to be expanding its range northward. Nonetheless, this species remains a much-wanted restricted-range specialty for avid Panama birders! Within Panama, the Veraguan Mango is mostly restricted to the Pacific lowlands of the western half of the country, from Chiriquí to Coclé. The male Veraguan Mango is green with a diffusely blue throat to belly, a maroon tail, and slightly decurved bill; the female has white underparts with a blue-green stripe down the center. Young birds look similar to adult females but with rufous coloration along the throat and breast. Both sexes are most easily distinguished from the more familiar Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis), which occurs in central and eastern Panama and in South America, and from the even more similar Green-breasted Mango (Anthracothorax prevostii), which occurs from western Panama north into Mexico, by their paler blue-green, rather than black, throat and central underparts. An adult male Veraguan Mango at Juan Hombron, photo by Carlos Bethancourt. Within its very limited range on the Pacific lowlands, the Veraguan Mango prefers open habitats such as pastureland with scattered trees or the edges of streams. Veraguan Mangos feed on the nectar of trees and shrubs, and individual birds may defend territories at trees in flower. The best opportunities for viewing this special hummingbird are on Canopy Family day trips from the Canopy Lodge to Juan Hombron on the Pacific coast. Aside from the unique Pacific dry forest and coastal environments, this birding excursion provides access to the Veraguan Mango's core habitat along pastures and in roadside scrub. Our experienced Canopy

Swainson's Hawk Buteo swainsoni Photo by Jonathan Slifkin. Every October and November, and again in March and April, nearly every Swainson’s Hawk in the world traverses the isthmus of Panama, on its way between its breeding grounds in western temperate North America and its wintering grounds on the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. Swainson's Hawks migrate in large flocks or "kettles," sometimes in numbers as strong as 10,000, and often in association with additional thousands of Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged Hawks, and Mississippi Kites. They migrate by day and over land, taking advantage of thermals to conserve energy. The passage of these great flocks through Central America is widely regarded as one of the birding world's greatest surviving spectacles. Fall migration surveys conducted from the Canopy Tower (see here) have recorded over 100,000 Swainson's Hawks in a single season, and over 70,000 in a single day! Although the great majority of Swainson's Hawks undertake the full long-distance migration, small numbers may spend the winter further north, including on Panama's western Pacific slope. The Swainson's Hawk is highly variable in appearance, often being separated into pale, dark, and rufous "morphs," although many individuals show intermediate characteristics. A typical pale morph individual has a distinctive rufous-brown breastband between its white throat and white belly, and white underwing coverts contrasting with dark gray flight feathers. Dark and rufous morph individuals have, respectively, brown to black or rufous underparts and underwing coverts, with variable barring or streaking. In all plumages this species may also be recognized by its long wings and tail, dark flight feathers, and pale undertail coverts. Swainson's Hawks generally prefer open habitats, such as grasslands, open woodlands, and agricultural areas. Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, reptiles, and birds while breeding, but predominantly of grasshoppers and other insects while migrating or

Ocellated Antbird Phaenostictus mcleannani Photo by Doug Weschler   A flashy, most-desired member of the antbird family (Thamnophilidae), the Ocellated Antbird is a denizen of the understory of lowland rainforest, where it is almost exclusively found in the vicinity of large swarms of army ants. At 19 cm in length, it is a large antbird and has a particularly striking appearance—it is olive above and rufous below, except that each individual feather is centered with black, giving it its distinctive scaly (“ocellated”) look. It also has a black throat, a bushy gray crest, and extensive blue facial skin. Strong, pink legs complement this antbird’s attire. It is fairly long-tailed and long-bodied and has a proportionately small head. Males and females look alike, and juveniles are similar but lack the blue facial skin of the adults. Finding an army ant swarm in the lowland tropical rainforests of Central and South America is like winning the jackpot for a birder. A large swarm may have dozens of individuals of several bird species attending, and the Ocellated Antbird is one of the most prized attendees. Like other antbirds, the Ocellated Antbird feeds not on the army ants themselves, but on the insects and arthropods, and occasionally small lizards, flushed out by the ants' movements. It is an "obligate" army ant follower, and seldom forages away from Eciton burchellii ant swarms. It is dominant at army ant swarms over other attendees, and is almost always in the company of Bicolored and Spotted Antbirds. Since army ants are nomadic, Ocellated Antbirds follow ant locations and check their bivouacs daily to keep tabs on them, and also take cues from each other's vocalizations and group knowledge to detect new swarms. At ant swarms, the Ocellated Antbird perches on branches and lianas close to the ground, often

Rufous-vented Ground-CuckooNeomorphus geoffroyi Photo by Danilo Rodríguez Jr. The Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo is a beautiful but infrequently encountered bird. Like the other four species of ground-cuckoo in its genus, it is renowned for its scarcity and its highly elusive habits. In appearance, the Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo might be described as an oversized colorful roadrunner—not incidentally, the Geococcyx roadrunners are considered a sister genus to the Neomorphus ground-cuckoos—with a prominent crest, a thick yellowish bill, bare blue skin around its eye, a long tail, and a plumage of green, purple, and bronze hues. Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos are almost always observed in the vicinity of large swarms of army ants, foraging on or near the ground by picking off the insects, arachnids, and small vertebrates such as lizards and frogs that the ants disturb as they swarm across the forest floor. Finding these antswarms can be very productive from a birder’s perspective, as many different birds can be observed foraging in this manner including other difficult species such as the Ocellated Antbird (Phaenostictus mcleannani), but the Neomorphus ground-cuckoos are undoubtedly the rarest and most sought-after of all the antswarm followers. The presence of a ground-cuckoo may be indicated by its deep moaning or cooing vocalization or by the loud clacking of its bill that it uses as an alarm or to communicate with other ground-cuckoos. Even once a ground-cuckoo is located at an antswarm, its shy nature and the often dense undergrowth of its habitat can make it difficult to see. Less frequently, Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoos may also forage in association with groups of peccaries or monkeys. The Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo occurs locally in areas of undisturbed primary forest. The northernmost population (subspecies salvini) occurs in parts of Nicaragua and Honduras, along the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, through Panama, and into northern Colombia. Five additional subspecies,

Rufous-crested CoquetteLophornis delattrei Photo by Carlos Bethancourt   Even within the charismatic hummingbird family (Trochilidae), the tiny, rare, ornately plumaged Rufous-crested Coquette is a standout birders’ favorite. The male Rufous-crested Coquette is most easily recognized by its long rufous-orange crest, as well as its green gorget (throat patch) with rufous cheek tufts and white throat feathers, and its conspicuous pale rump-band. The female is similar to the male but has a rufous-orange forecrown without a crest and lacks the male’s gorget. Coquettes (of the genus Lophornis) are some of the very smallest members of the hummingbird family and are often described as having a "beelike" flight, with the result that they are sometimes mistaken for flying insects! The Rufous-crested Coquette's breeding and nesting behavior is poorly recorded, other than the courtship behavior of the male involving the display of its crest and short display flights in front of the female. Rare in lowlands of both slopes (a bit more numerous on the Caribbean slope), Rufous-crested Coquettes are more commonly seen in the Panamanian highlands around 900 m (3000 ft). They can be found feeding on flowers located at forest edges, clearings and roadsides, tending to avoid the forest interior. On Canopy Family tours, we most frequently see this species at two regular foothill sites: the Canopy Adventure near the Lodge and Cerro Azul near the Tower. Outside of Panama, this species has a scattered distribution from Colombia south to Bolivia. Male Rufous-crested Coquette feeding in the Canopy Lodge garden, by David Tipling. Female Rufous-crested Coquette, by Rafael Lau. References Angehr, G. R., and R. Dean (2010). The Birds of Panama: A Field Guide. Zona Tropical, San José, Costa Rica. Hilty, S. L., and W. L. Brown (1986). A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Züchner, T.

Gray-headed Chachalaca Ortalis cinereiceps Photo by Jonathan Slifkin   Gray-headed Chachalacas are usually a conspicuous presence, moving through the trees in flocks and delivering a chorus of loud, raucous calls. They are also notable for their habit of periodically monopolizing the fruit feeders at the Canopy Lodge! The Gray-headed Chachalaca is the only Panamanian representative of its genus, which includes fourteen other species of chachalaca ranging from the southern tip of Texas into South America. In turn, chachalacas, along with guans and curassows, belong to the family Cracidae, distantly related to pheasants, quails, and guineafowl. Often described as chicken-like or turkey-like in its general appearance, the Gray-headed Chachalaca is mostly plain brown in coloration with a gray head and neck, a bare red dewlap, a long pale-tipped tail, and distinctive rufous primaries. Photo by Carlos Bethancourt Gray-headed Chachalacas range from Honduras south into northwestern Colombia. In Panama they are common throughout the country except for the highlands. Chachalacas are not typically found in mature forest habitats, but instead prefer secondary or partially cleared forest, thickets and shrubby habitats, and plantations. Their diet consists mostly of fruit, and to a lesser degree leaves and insects. They forage mostly in the trees, only occasionally descending to the ground. Gray-headed Chachalacas are highly social and usually forage in groups of 6 to 12 or more individuals, which make themselves conspicuous with their repetitive raucous vocalizations. Gray-headed Chachalacas lay their eggs, usually three per brood, mostly from January through May. These take at least 22 days to incubate. Usually it is at the beginning of the green season (May–June) that we see young chachalacas out and about with their parents, as in this video of a family captured on the Panama Fruit Feeder Cam at the Canopy Lodge! What's in a name? "Chachalaca" is a